We’re looking at one of the most ahead-of-their-time, avant-garde and experimental bands Catalan music has ever produced — one that, sadly, given the lack of proper exposure, ended up going their separate ways.
Now that this year marks the thirtieth anniversary of its release, we want to make the case that “Banzim Banzam” is an essential, fundamental record. The then-emerging technique of sampling — the use of sound samples — was still being developed in the nineties, and this LP is one of its finest examples. Listen to the work of today’s supposedly most “modern” and “cool” bands, and it won’t impress you much once you’ve heard Gringos. And we’re not talking about the crude sampling you might find on a Rosalía or Kanye West record. No — here there’s genuine artistic depth and a great deal of intelligence.
My recommendation is to turn off the lights, put on a good pair of headphones, and hit play to take this journey. The same way many of us have done, or recommend doing, when listening to Pink Floyd’s “The Dark Side of the Moon” — the experience is monumental.
The songs are stitched together by various interludes featuring film clips — including one from “Alien 3” — Charles Bukowski quotes, TV preachers, unsettling atmospheres, children’s songs, and more. It’s all so well crafted and wonderfully thought out to leave an impression on the listener that all you can really say is: “Olé tu” (well played, you).
On top of that, the tracks are extremely original, like “J”, a wonderful progressive-rock jota (yes, I promise I haven’t smoked anything), with a stirring guest turn from flamenco singer Ginesa Ortega. Or the moving “Jocs”, an allegory for how the world of childhood is abruptly shattered as it turns into an adult universe. Or the world-music echoes of “Andele, andele” or “Hoka Hey!”. Or, or, or… there’s so much richness here.
So if this record is this good, why aren’t we talking about an album everyone recognises? Because they were in a place where nobody had much interest in their kind of music, at a time when taking it beyond our borders came with serious financial obstacles. Honestly, not that much has changed today, but at least now we have social media giving bands a chance — something that simply didn’t exist back then.
Those of us who are a certain age (or two) will remember Gringos doing the pyromusical show at Barcelona’s 1992 Mercè festival. And if you remember U2’s Zoo TV Tour from around that same time and compare the two, there’s really nothing to envy as far as the spectacle goes. But all of that represents a huge amount of money to pull off this kind of multimedia production, and it’s simply not within everyone’s reach. Add to that the fact that Gringos weren’t exactly making music for the mainstream, and you have a pretty solid explanation for why this band never managed to establish itself.
Joan Anton Mas (drums and samplers), Sergi Riera (bass, guitar and samplers), Josep Sanou (keyboards and samplers) and Jaume Subirana (samplers and audiovisuals) created this multimedia band, and besides “Banzim Banzam” they also left us their debut work, “Gringos” (1990), and the soundtrack to the documentary “Històries del Carib” (1992).
It’s fair to say this gem won’t be easy to track down — the term “hidden gem” fits perfectly here, since I haven’t managed to find it for free or digital listening anywhere online. So I’ve rented myself a safe-deposit box to keep the CD I bought after seeing them at Vic’s Mercat de Música Viva, back around ’94 or ’95. I’ll take this chance to nominate myself as the next “grandpa reminiscing about the good old days”.
If you do decide to buy it — assuming you haven’t got rid of your CD player yet — I can assure you it’ll be worth every cent, repaid in the form of pure listening bliss and the inevitable exclamation: “And these guys were from here!?”.
Writer: David Sàez